"Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster"

Castle Face

Artists:

Over his decade-plus tenutre fronting San Francisco's Thee Oh Sees, John Dwyer has proven himself equally fond of lysergic, childlike melody and skull-splitting, motorik-metered noise. He just rarely indulges them at the same time, often using each new Thee Oh Sees album to mark a sudden, reactionary change in course. However, the upcoming Floating Coffin proves to be a natural extension of last year's Putrifiers II in striking the right balance between the band's congenial and confrontational modes.

That happy medium is best exemplified by "Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster", a hit of swirling psych-pop aimed at the pleasure centers of that faction of Flaming Lips fans who wish Wayne Coyne and crew would ditch the concept albums and confetti-covered theatrics and get back to the feel-good fuzz-rock of Transmissions From the Satellite Heart. And like Putrifiers' mesmerizing highlight "Lupine Dominus", the song proves you don't really need a proper chorus when you just jam away on a totally righteous riff.